1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing currency transactions, and in particular, to an inexpensive system for securely distributing and accepting scrip at numerous widely distributed gaming devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years have seen a rapid expansion of the gaming industry. Much of the income derived from such games is collected at gaming devices like slot machines and video poker games.
Revenue from such gaming devices can be increased in one of two ways: by increasing the number of transactions or by increasing the average wager per transaction. The number of transactions can be most easily increased simply by increasing the number of available machines. However, increasing the number of gaming devices can be a costly enterprise.
In the past, most gaming machines used coins as a medium of exchange. The machine accepted the wager in coin, and if the player was successful, paid winnings immediately from coin stored in the machine itself. While effective, such coin machines are expensive to maintain. Since the money taken in by the gaming device generally exceeds jackpots paid out, the accumulated money (in coin) must be removed from each machine on a periodic basis. This collection can be difficult, because coins can be heavy and unwieldy.
Recent years have seen a movement away from coin-only machines and a proliferation of gaming machines that also accept currency as a medium of exchange. In fact, currently, 60% or more of gaming machines can accept wagers in currency. Although they represent an improvement from the coin machines of the past, currency-accepting gaming machines have proved to be no panacea Currency acceptors do not obviate the need to pay out winnings in coin. For example, if the player cashes out with $25.50 remaining in the pay out account, the gaming device can only issue winnings in coin (in this case, 104 quarters). Since players will often terminate play at such times, the coinage paid out generally exceeds wager coinage entered into the machine, and a cache of coin in the gaming device must be maintained and frequently replenished.
Another difficulty with gaming machines is that large banks of them can be difficult to manage. The casino must monitor each machine to assure that it has sufficient coin/cash/scrip reserves to allow game play. However, the replenish interval can vary widely from machine to machine, due to factors such as the popularity of a particular machine, the location of the machine, the season, and other factors. The effect of these factors becomes especially difficult to determine for new machines. What is needed is a method for monitoring the coin/cash/scrip reserve of each particular machine to maximize income, and to allow the casino to replenish each particular machine only when necessary. There is also a need for a means to monitor a wide variety of gaming device parameters, including gambling patterns, machine downtime, and the like. This allows the casino to compile statistical data regarding the effectiveness of each gaming machine. To compile meaningful statistical data, it is also important that the foregoing monitoring ability be extended to existing machines as well as newly purchased machines.
Further, while gaming devices typically have a useful lifetime extending for many years, they can become obsolete in far less time by the introduction of more popular gaming devices with different game play. Beyond mere monitoring of gaming devices, it is also important to allow the functionality of the gaming devices to be simply and inexpensively altered or modified to include popular features. Especially desirable is the ability to reprogram these modifications for many gaming devices from a remote location.
To address the requirements described above, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for enhancing a gaming device. The gaming device has a plurality of legacy I/O devices for communicating I/O device signals to a legacy gaming device processor via a plurality of legacy communication paths.
The apparatus comprises an interface module, communicatively coupled to at least one of the legacy I/O communication paths between the legacy I/O device and the legacy gaming device processor to monitor the I/O device signal; and a local processor, communicatively coupled to the interface module and to a remote processor, the local processor performing instructions comprising instructions for controlling the interface module, for receiving the monitored I/O signals, and for transmitting the monitored signal to the remote processor.
The method comprises the steps of modifying at least one of the legacy communication paths to monitor at least one of the I/O device signals; and providing the I/O device signal on the monitored I/O device signals to a remote processor external to the gaming device. In one embodiment, the method further comprises the steps of interrupting at least one of the I/O device signals communicated on a legacy communication path; generating a substitute I/O device signal; and providing the substitute I/O device signal on the legacy communication path.